Of Jasmine Tea and Jerkbenders
by Thomson
Summary: Sozin's comet has Zuko stressed out! Who better to help using their individual methods of relaxation than the Gaang!


Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or any of its awesomeness.

A/N: One-shot, no pairings-just general drabble to include a bunch of the characters. Set during the Gaang's time on Ember Island. Please leave a review! Thanks for reading.

"What do you want from me? Why can't you just leave me alone?" he shouted. Zuko was on his feet, hands clenched and glaring at the others around the fire. They all stared, dumbstruck. "Relax jerkbender, I just asked if you were hungry!" exclaimed Sokka. "I told you to stop calling me that!" the firebender seethed. "Looks like flameboy's feeling cranky again." put in Toph. "I'm NOT cranky!" he cried. Katara frowned at him and said playfully, "I don't know about that. Did you take your nap today, Zuzu?" Zuko let out an agitated yell and kicked the ground hard. He leaped back, clutching his hurting foot and spit out a list of obscenities that caused Toph to lean over and cover Aang's ears. "But really," said Katara, now serious, "what's wrong?" Zuko grumbled something inaudible, and Aang pulled Toph's hands from his ears and asked "What?" as if he was the only one not to hear. "I said I can't relax when Sozin's comet is only days away." he growled. Aang looked at him seriously but said lightly "Well I can't have stressed out firebending teacher. You could light the whole island on fire!" "It's not much of a loss," the ex-prince said under his breath.

"I say we show angry jerk here how Team Avatar calms down before a big battle!" said Sokka enthusiastically. "Angry jerk?" asked Zuko. He was ignored. "I could try something with my waterbending. The scroll we took from the pirates had some pretty useful forms." said Katara. Toph nodded her agreement with a wicked smile "And nothing's better for a paranoid maniac like good rock pummeling." Zuko cocked his head at her and said "Gee, thanks Toph." She just grinned at him, matching Aang who looked at him hopefully and said "So how about it, Zuko?" He just shook his head and mumbled "Whatever."

+++scene change+++

Since it was Sokka's idea in the first place, he had the first go. He explained his plan to Zuko, who looked completely uninterested, if not confused. "Wait, you want me to do what?" "You just take your knife and carve the wood until it's some sort of shape." "That's stupid." "No, it's whittling. Now try it; it helps you think."

The boys sat leaned against the dunes of the beach all afternoon, working with their wood. Finally Sokka stood up and proudly displayed his carving of a watertribe boat. "Ta da! Isn't it great?" Zuko stared at the lump of driftwood in his friend's hand. "What is it?" "It's a boat, obviously!" the firebender raised his one eyebrow at him, and Sokka exclaimed "Yeah, well what did YOU make?" Zuko lifted up a carving nearly distinguishable as a firenation tank. Sokka broke into hysterical laughter, rolling around in the sand and banging his fists down. "Okay, okay." said Zuko, fighting to keep a smile off his face, "So we both suck at art." Sokka sat up, still laughing and managed "So do you feel any calmer now?" Zuko shrugged. "Not really." Sokka shook his head in mock dismay "Then I guess its Toph's turn."

+++scene change+++

When Toph had said a rock pummeling, she had meant it. It reminded him more of target practice than any sort of healing exercise. "Toph, that kind of HURTS!" Zuko ground out from under the weight of a large rock she was grinding into him. "Oh come on, it's helping" she said as she drove it into him even harder. He thought his spine would snap. "Do you even know what you're doing? Ow!" She bent it in a circular motion. "Tough, princess! No pain, no gain!"

The rock "massage" lasted only a few minutes longer, and afterward, a sore Zuko staggered his way back to the campfire and mumbled "Remind me never to let her "help" me, again."

+++scene change+++

Katara's method was a little gentler. She was able to soothe his body where Toph had "massaged" it with her water. "Here, I'm going to use the water to loosen the tension in your muscles." she said. Zuko felt his body relax slightly, and he closed his eyes. Suddenly, a weight dropped onto his chest. His eyes snapped open as he let out "Oof." There he saw Momo, looking at him with big, curious eyes. "No Momo! Stop that!" said Katara. Zuko reached up and stroked the lemur muttering "He's fine". Katara shrugged and returned her glowing blue hands to his shoulders. As she touched a particularly nasty bruise he jerked and hissed in pain. Momo was alarmed and jumped off him and onto Katara's head screeching. It would have been really funny to Zuko, had it not distracted Katara enough that the water in her hands came down on his face with a big splash.

Katara, finally parting a startled lemur from her head, giggled at him, then at the look on his face said sheepishly "Sorry, Zuko." He sat up and then got to his feet. "I guess that's finished. Thanks anyway." She smiled, turned to Momo and said "Now what? Should I give you a bath?" Momo screeched and darted away. _Well he seems to understand what water is, now._

+++scene change+++

Zuko wandered around on the beach for awhile until he came to find Aang practicing some airbending moves with his staff. "Hey Aang." he said as he approached. Aang turned and replied "Oh, hey Zuko. How's the 'relaxation' going?" Zuko rolled his eyes. "That bad?" Aang studied his staff for a minute and said suddenly "I've got an idea!" He walked over to Zuko and popped out the wings of his glider, readying it for action. "What are you thinking, Aang?" Zuko said nervously, looking back and forth from him to the glider. "I think some flying is just the thing to help you relax."

Before he could protest it, Zuko was holding onto the top of the glider while Aang kept it soaring from his usual position underneath. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!" Zuko screamed with every flip, twist and dive the airbender executed. "I'm having fun too!" yelled Aang in his silly, childlike nature he so rarely got to express these days.

When they finally touched back down on the beach Zuko stumbled sideways and fell to his knees, shaking and trying to keep down his lunch. "So how was that?" asked Aang happily. Zuko answered only with a groan and flopped back into the sand.

+++scene change+++

After dinner, the Gaang sat around in the courtyard of the firelord's old summer home and talked. Zuko still had that nagging feeling keeping him on edge, and so he offered to go check on Appa for something to do. He patted the giant arrow on the sky bison's head. Appa grumbled happily and nudged the firenation boy with his head. Zuko chuckled as the bison repeatedly bumped his nose into him, sniffing, as if he was trying to get at something. "What is it?" He asked, amused. The bison nudged at his pocket. Zuko put his hand in and drew out at small bag of tea leaves. Well what do you know? It looked like Appa smelled the jasmine. Zuko thought about it. Uncle always said there was nothing like a cup of hot, jasmine tea at the end of the day to help you relax. Maybe it was worth a try. "Thanks, Appa." He said, ruffling the fur on his brow. _Thanks uncle_…

***The End***


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